Without proprioception, i.e. the intrinsic capability of a body to perceive its own limb position, completing daily life activities would require constant visual attention and it would challenging or even impossible. This situation is similar to the one experienced after limb amputation and in robotic tele-operation, where the natural sensory-motor loop is broken. While some promising solutions based on skin stretch sensory substitution have been proposed to restore tactile properties in these conditions, there is still room for enhancing the intuitiveness of stimulus delivery and the integration of haptic feedback devices within user's body. To contribute to this goal, here we propose a wearable device based on skin stretch stimulation, the Stretch-Pro, which can provide proprioceptive information on artificial hand aperture. This system can be suitably integrated in a prosthetic socket, or can be easily worn by a user controlling remote robots. The system can imitate the stretching of the skin that would naturally occur on the intact limb, when it is used to accomplish motor tasks. Two versions of the system are presented, with 1 and 2 actuators, respectively, which deliver the stretch stimulus in different ways. Experiments with ablebodied participants and a preliminary test with one prosthesis user are reported. Results suggest that Stretch-Pro could be a viable solution to convey proprioceptive cues to upper limb prosthesis users, opening promising perspectives for tele-robotics applications.
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